The Trouble With Drabbles
by Scribbler
Summary: A collection of drabbles and short ficlets of various characters and pairings. Features introspection, blood, love, hamburgers, kittens and, ooh, both het and slash.


**Disclaimer –** Not mine.

**A/N –** Written as part of a drabble (100 word ficlet) giveaway on LiveJournal, though some are decidedly more than drabbles. I've included the prompts I was given, though not the names of those who requested them. The title is a riff off Star Trek's episode _The Trouble with Tribbles_.

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_**The Trouble With Drabbles **_

© Scribbler, June 2007.

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_Anzu and Atemu, ancient Egypt and kittens._

**Protection **

Téana protected the cats. The elders called her foolish; when they decamped they couldn't bring them along, but she still threw scraps and allowed them near her fire. When jackals caught the mother she remade her bed with them at the centre. At decamping she hid the squirming bodies in her roll.

"Why bother?" asked the elders when they heard mewing at the border.

She resisted answering because she couldn't – until she saw a parade with a gold crown among the spearheads, which leapt from its horse to stop a beating and dirty its cloak.

"Because the strong must protect the weak."

* * *

_Seto, Anzu and Chess._

**Checkmate**

"But you don't even know how to play!"

Anzu glared. "I know this," she gritted.

Jounouchi scratched his head. "So why did you accept a challenge to a chess game?"

"Because he insulted Yuugi."

"He always insults Yuugi. He's Seto freaking Kaiba! That's practically his raison d'être."

Honda blinked. "Dude, you know what that means?"

Jounouchi paused only long enough to throw him a filthy look. "So what was different this time?"

"I dunno." Anzu scrubbed her hair. "It just bugged me."

"But he… you… _chess_!" Jounouchi flailed. "I don't get it!"

She patted his shoulder. "You're not meant to."

* * *

_Mokuba/Rebecca._

**Copycat**

"That's absurd."

Mokuba didn't like trading on his name, but sixteen-year-old Rebecca Hawkins was pushing him. He wanted to jump up, shout, "My brother is Seto Kaiba! I know how to play Duel Monsters!" and see her expression. It was completely out of character, but he still wanted to.

He didn't.

What he actually did was stay in his chair, opposite her scowl, and patiently try to explain himself.

"But that's ridiculous." She finished the game in one move. "See?"

Mokuba tried not to monologue. There were some things he _didn't_ want to share with Seto – including sexual duelling tension.

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_Kaiba/Yami no Bakura._

**No Regrets **

Seto didn't freeze when the his office door crashed open and someone strode in. Seto Kaiba never froze, he just stopped moving.

"Yes?" he said coolly. He didn't sound like he was facing a psychopathic murderer. He injected the same amount of irritation as one might a jammed photocopier, or mosquito.

This threw Bakura, but only a little. He reasserted himself with a haughty, "You have something I want."

"I have many things people want. Be more specific."

"You know."

Seto Kaiba didn't sigh, either. He picked the Millennium Puzzle out of a drawer.

Again, Bakura was thrown. "You're… giving it to me?"

Seto fingered the small bloodstain on the tip. He did not sound wistful. "Why would I need to keep it?"

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_Seto/Malik; Seto Seme, Malik uke. Roses_

**Absolutely Definitely **_**Not**_** Hearts and Roses**

Malik looked at the roses, then Kaiba. Then he looked at the roses. Then back at Kaiba. Finally he toyed with the small card he'd read far too many times before the one who did _not_ write it came to visit his hospital room.

"Your secretary."

"Yes."

"Did you tell her to take care of it?"

"She's used to predicting my movements."

"How often does she predict accurately?"

Seto didn't answer. "You stepped in front of a bus."

"Not deliberately. There was a little kid-"

"A bus." Seto might as well have said, "You stuck your hand in a meat-grinder to atone for your past crimes."

Malik squared his shoulders. "And?"

"The nurses say you're a hero." Seto didn't invest the sentence with much conviction – or approval.

"What do you say?"

"I say this leg-brace is going to make things difficult."

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_Yami no Yuugi/Anzu, at that burger place in Series 0 where she found out about him, only it's after hours and they're __all alone_

**Irony**

Anzu was finished with Burger World. The workers were okay, and the wages didn't suck, but being held at gunpoint really soured you on a place.

Still, she surveyed the Formica tables and ugly Naugahyde booths with something approaching wistfulness. Jobs were scarce – especially secret jobs for schoolgirls. Plus, this was her only connection to the mysterious stranger who'd saved her life. Who knew whether they'd ever meet again?

"Anzu?"

"Yuugi?" She turned, surprised. "You waited for me?"

"I was, uh, worried." In the gloom, his lowered purple eyes seemed flecked with red.

Anzu smiled. "That was sweet of you."

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_Yami no Malik (seme)/Kaiba Seto (uke); pride, game._

**Breaking the Rules**

Malik was tired of games. Ironic, then, that he found someone so wholly devoted to them. He bent the stiff walking cane of Seto Kaiba, but found him difficult to break. Kaiba didn't fit into other people's ideas of how he should be.

Therefore, Malik made it his business to change that, because the world was only allowed to exist as he saw fit.

He didn't count on that insufferable pride. The arrogant set of Kaiba's jaw remained even when he was on his knees.

"Why resist so much?" Malik honestly wanted to know.

"Because I am not your plaything."

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_Prompt 1: Yami Bakura/Yami Yuugi; in an alleyway._

_Prompt 2: Yami Yuugi/Yami Bakura; Why?_

**Neither Rhyme Nor Reason**

"So you're reduced to this?"

Bakura snarled and slowly swivelled his head. He didn't bother getting up, or even turning fully. Despite this, he retained the psychological height – or so he told himself. There was a lot to be said for a wild stare.

Yami regarded him evenly. "It's rather pitiful, really."

"Just because _your_ old host took you in, like some snivelling puppy."

"No, because you were once a formidable opponent, and now…" Yami gestured at the trash cans he'd been pawing through. "Receiving flesh should've been a gift. Without magic, it's more your curse."

"Fuck off." If he'd had the energy, Bakura may actually have bitten the extended hand. "Keep your fucking _pity_."

Yami rolled his eyes and yanked him to his feet. Good Samaritans weren't supposed to be so rough, but charity cases weren't supposed to claw at your eyes, either. They glared in mutual revulsion for a moment, before Bakura sagged, empty-bellied, and reluctantly allowed himself to be dragged down the street.

_-_

Anzu, Honda and Jounouchi crowded around the door like the Three Stooges. Jounouchi complained that Anzu was stepping on his head, but only until Yuugi appeared.

"So… he's really here?" Honda asked.

Yuugi nodded.

"Dude, Ryou is _so_ not gonna like this."

"Screw what Ryou thinks;_ I_ don't like this!" Jounouchi snapped. "Why the heck is that psycho in your house, Yuugi?"

"Yami says he was living on the streets -"

"So?"

Yuugi shrugged, embarrassed. He couldn't explain it either, except from his own forgiving perspective, and Jounouchi wasn't of a mind to see things that way. His hotheadedness made him punch the wall until Anzu smacked him.

"Stop that. This is Yami's home too. Bakura's here now and we have to accept it, even if he is the reincarnated spirit of a homicidal maniac." She looked at Yuugi. "It's not permanent, right?"

Yuugi just continued to look embarrassed.

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_**Fin.**_

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End file.
